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Movies and globalization
Topics on how American film affects culture
Topics on how American film affects culture
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The Silent Partner: A Canadianization Dilemma
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As a student of Canadian film, I find great appreciation in films that work to culturally enrich Canada's movie screens. I feel that an honest portrayal of Canadian values and culture is beneficial not only by enhancing the credibility of Canada's film industry, but also by maintaining a voice for the customs held by the Canadian people. For these reasons, among others, it had become very easy for me to dislike Daryl Duke's 1978 film The Silent Partner. Based on the knowledge I had before sitting through numerous screenings of the film, I found a challenge in making any concretely positive statements about it, or the state of Canada's film industry at the time. I asked myself about the effect this film had on Canada's film industry, wondering primarily if the film's success in Canada - it won a total of 6 Canadian Film Awards including best feature and best director - came not from a poignant portrayal of Canadian culture, but rather from a "Canadianization" of the typical American thriller. I questioned the details of the film's formation, the choices made about talent, and the credibility of the script, and still I found myself forcing out any positive criticisms I might muster. As far as first impressions go, The Silent Partner's was not promising.
Perhaps now I must consider an alternate approach to understanding this film. Maybe my difficulty in pinpointing The Silent Partner's positive attributes demonstrates to some extent my current narrow-mindedness on Hollywood-style pictures. I think it's only fair to treat this film as an article of film criticism in order to accurately look at it within the context of a national cinema. And so, let us begin by looking first at the particulars of the Canadian film industry around the time The Silent Partner was released. Maybe afterwards, we'll be able to understand the implications of what audiences saw on that illustrious Canadian screen I feel so emotionally bound to preserving.
The code word for success in the late seventies was "international appeal." In a time referred to as "the tax-shelter boom," it was perceived by some that the Canadian film industry had given in. Demoralized by countless relatively unsuccessful attempts at profitability and independence, "Canada's feature film industry had finally succumbed to that old adage: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" (Magder 169).
The cinema as a form of leisure was not new to British society, and indeed most western industrialised societies, during the interwar era. Prior to World War One it was not much more than a 'technical curiosity', but by the 1920s it was the 'new medium' and one that was a 'fully fledged form of art'. (Taylor 1970 p, 180) Throughout most of the 1920s, films shown in cinemas around the world were 'silent'. While silent films were not new to this era, the popularity of them experienced a 'new' and unique interest amongst the general public. Indeed, Vile Bodies highlights the popularity of the cinema and in particular, the 'silent' film as a regularly experienced leisure activity. Waugh's character, Colonel Blount, is the most obvious representation of the popular interest of films and film making at the time Vile Bodies was written. He tells Adam, after asking his interest in the cinema, that he and the Rector went 'a great deal' to the 'Electra Palace'. (Waugh 1930 p, 59)
The idea of Hollywood, before it was Hollywood as we know it seems foreign. However, it did exist and was known as "Pre-code." Pre-code Hollywood refers to the era in the American film industry between the introduction of sound in the late 1920's and the enforcement of the Hays Code censorship guidelines, which went into effect on June 13, 1934 (Association of Motion Picture Producers 1934). Durin...
Elsaesser, Robert. "The Pathos of Failure: American Films in the 1970s" The Last Great American Picture Show: New Hollywood Cinema in the 1970s. Ed. Thomas Elsaesser, Alexander Horwath, Noel King. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2004. 279-292. Print.
Many people might have a diverse opinion on the extend of the American cultural influence on Canada, but the truth is, these two countries share a long common border, they use frequently the same language, they watch the same movies, listen to the same music and collaborate on other numerous levels, including economic and political activity. In this paper, I would like to show the extent of the influence on Canadian popular culture that comes from the United States. For my analysis I have chosen four segments of popular culture: television, printed media, music and films. In these are the main sectors where we can see the biggest evidence of this phenomenon. In the first part I would like to shortly introduce the history of this issue. The second part is the analysis of the four sectors.
November 1998, written for FILM 220: Aspects of Criticism. This is a 24-week course for second-year students, examining methods of critical analysis, interpretation and evaluation. The final assignment was simply to write a 1000-word critical essay on a film seen in class during the final six-weeks of the course. Students were expected to draw on concepts they had studied over the length of the course.
The culture of Canada refers to the shared values, attitudes, standards, and beliefs that are a representative of Canada and Canadians throughout Canada's history, its culture has been influenced by American culture because of a shared language, proximity, television and migration between the two countries. Overtime, Canadian-American relations have helped develop Canada’s identity during the years 1945-1982; thus introducing changing social norms , media and entertainment. In support of this, due to the United States being approximately 9.25 times larger in population and having the dominant cultural and economic influence it played a vital role in establishing Canada’s identity. With Canada being its neighbour, naturally, the United States would influence their way of life upon Canada. In other words,
BIBLIOGRAPHY An Introduction to Film Studies Jill Nelmes (ed.) Routledge 1996 Anatomy of Film Bernard H. Dick St. Martins Press 1998 Key Concepts in Cinema Studies Susan Hayward Routledge 1996 Teach Yourself Film Studies Warren Buckland Hodder & Stoughton 1998 Interpreting the Moving Image Noel Carroll Cambridge University Press 1998 The Cinema Book Pam Cook (ed.) BFI 1985 FILMOGRAPHY All That Heaven Allows Dir. Douglas Sirk Universal 1955 Being There Dir. Hal Ashby 1979
There has always been a problem for Canada with the definition of its national identity. In fact, it would almost be fair to say that an unease about the lack of such a collective identity is what defines Canadians the best. This page briefly considers some of the causes of this situation, and then goes on to consider some broad themes which might be described as distinctively and characteristically Canadian. Obviously, this is a very tricky area, as any discussion of national identities must be, with the twin dangers of oversimplification and essentialism. But the purpose here is merely to convey to the uninitiated a little taste of what Canada is and has been, in cultural terms.
Thi dogistovi, cerdouvescaler end risporetury systim eri ell ontirriletid on urdir tu meki thi hamen budy wurk iffictovily end iffocointly. Thi cerdouvescaler systim end thi risporetury wurk tugithir by pirfurmong ges ixchengi whoch os pessong uf uxygin frum thi elviulo ontu thi bluud fluw end thin thi cerbun douxodi pessis truagh thi bluud fluw end os briethid uat frum thi budy. If ges ixchengi dodn’t teki pleci thin ot woll risalt on thi cills dyong. Thiri eri meny uthir budy systims thet ontirrileti woth iech uthir i.g. thi nirvuas systim os ontirriletid woth thi mascaler systim.
As an audience we are manipulated from the moment a film begins. In this essay I wish to explore how The Conversation’s use of sound design has directly controlled our perceptions and emotional responses as well as how it can change the meaning of the image. I would also like to discover how the soundtrack guides the audience’s attention with the use of diegetic and nondiegetic sounds.
Barsam, Richard. Looking at Movies An Introduction to Film, Second Edition (Set with DVD). New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. Print.
When the topic of Canada comes up among peoples, immediately the thought of ice hockey, the Mounted Police, and beavers comes to mind. In fact, Canada has truly lost its true identity that we once knew. It is slowly being assimilated and in fact 'Americanized'; in aspects of social identity, national identity, and cultural identity.
...ch as William Wordsworth, and John Keats propelled the English Romantic movement. Many of the poems that they made are still read and enjoyed by many people today around the world. Thus, the Romantic era produced many of the stereotypes of poets and poetry that exist to this day.
Pertaining to this, the incorporation of financial solutions with the mobile devices supplemented with affordable network connectivity has chiefly been responsible for transforming the usage of mobile devices merely from a communication device to a monetary transferring device. This has led to the magnificent setting of a new era in the mobile financial
The world has transitioned into the technological era where the use of mobile phone has become remarkably important to connect people globally. Referring to Aijaz and Heikki (2014), mobile banking is often defined as an enabler allowing banks and customers to interact, while mobile money involves peer-to-peer business. To give an example of what these services offer, it would allow for financial transactions such as balance inquiries, funds transfers, bill payments, and inquiries concerning account history. According to KPMG report (2015), the proportion of users in its service has grown rapidly over the past three years, with the number of global users of mobile banking projected to increase to 1.8 billion people by 2019 compared to 0.6 billion